J Francho

How would sound have anything to do with a fish's lateral line? The lateral line picks up water pressure "vortices" from movement in the water. I'd say it plays just as much a part in all water, regardless of visibility, especially near the end of the chase. As far as rattles, non rattles, I can't say I've noticed a difference. What does bug me though, is when two of the same model have two different rattles.

Crestliner, they appear like you describe when the graph is in narrow beam mode. This was in wide beam mode. Game fish over 3 lbs. are about the 1/2 to 2/3 length of the graph. Now, to be totally accurate, I didn't catch the suspended fish. The fish I caught were on the bottom. Zoomed in, in narrow beam mode, I could see my sinker and bait. Then basically thick lines rose of the bottom, to my bait. A little jiggle-pop of the bait, and I had a dozen or so perch in the boat, 11-14" long. So, the smaller arches could very well be bait, though bait balls this time of year show as MUCH larger, solid red and yellow clumps. I had one that was at least a football field long.

Nice! 1. Amen. 2. I love that. Crow gets better and better with each bite. 3. Napping is underrated. 4. Comic Sans seems to work here. 5. What ever way hides the blood stain. 6. They don't teach this at my son's school anymore. I'm very disappointed. 7. What's funny, is when one of the steps involves a u-turn. 8. And the contents of the will. 9. I can't remember even being awake. 10. Oh yes. 11. Usually between 9:00 and 9:30 AM. 12. What am I supposed to do with all these Betamax tapes? 13. Save as a copy. 14. Why are you reading the washing instructions? That's her job. 15. Or while you are calling back, you get call waiting beeped by them. What did they think I was doing? 16. We're old, and ugly. No one is looking. Ever. 17. I do this too. They are all labeled "wife." 18. Never underestimate the brilliance of a 4-year-old. Especially when it comes to ninjas. 19. And just call the crisper what it really is: the rotter. 20. Son: "Daddy, where do babies come from?" Father: "The beer aisle."

These aren't bubbles, but they aren't bass either. A drop shot Gulp! minnow revealed their identity, yellow perch.

Great steelhead bait!

Dammit......I'm busted. Its a 5/6 St. Croix Premier that I sold a year ago. Fly fishing either sucks, or I suck at it.

x2 on the XPS line. If I were you, I'd get him a BPS gift card, though.

For that, you want a Hopkins Shorty Spoon. 1/2 oz. is a good size to start.

I just wish I had pictures for you guys. He looked like this, but less relaxed, LOL.

Here is a tip for braid to fluoro or mono leader: Leave a 1/4" tag on the braided mainline, and fray it into a little white poof ball. You now have a strike indicator.

Not really. I've used several knots, triple surgeons, nail, Alberto (my favorite), uni to uni, allbright, etc.

Through thick weeds, with a pork or grub trailer. Personally, I use Johnson Silver Minnows, but these are the basically the same idea.

Yes, very boring. I could let it take drag, or thumb the spool, and let it drag me. It showed no sign of tiring when I finally got my bait within reach of the pliers. Once I realized I had a crap snagged in the butt, I had zero intention of bringing it in the boat. As kids, we snagged suckers in 4 Mile Creek, near my house. Kept us out of trouble, I suppose, but looking back, it wasn't all that difficult. Rebel, eventually, you will foul hook a bass. Especially if you fish crankbaits. it happens.

That is a very good suggestion. I run into that very issue when mounting my TD to a tin can rental boat. As much as I tried to account for transom angle, you just can't count on getting the same boat over and over. Though, the owner of the marina knows that I have y faves, LOL.

42° is bath water to me, LOL.

http://www.igfa.org/Members/#null Its $40 to join, and gain access to the entire records list.

I actually heard that, and chalked it up to urban myth. I guess there's some truth to it. I've seen a 2' Pacu (S. Am. characoid) dragged out of there as well. I'm pretty sure the source was a local pet store, LOL. No, it wasn't a mudshark, but it was tail hooked.....

The transducer could be crooked. But sounds more like what was explained above. While I don't use factory defaults at all, that may be a good place to start over from.

I guess you'd have to get in shallow, and duplicate the 1st set of returns with a known entity. I can relate to the pack of fish looking like weeds. Best to switch to 200 kHz narrow bean to get the best definition possible. I had a similar occurrence yesterday. What looked like big clumps of dying milfoil were actually moving, LOL. You can see more details in my Other Species post. [EDIT]Meant to say switch out of 200 kHz mode.....to wide beam. I always screw that up.[/edit]

I was hoping to post a bass report, but will have to settle with the multi species category. Launched the yak at dark o'clock. I fished crankbaits, jigs, and blades in likely places, to no avail. After a couple of hours, I decided to head up around "perch jerker point." This is where I ran into Noel and Guy pulling in some nice hoss Jacks. I probably should have been doing the same, but I was hell bent for bass after spending so much time messing with trout. I ate lunch, and headed to a spot that had been producing consistently up until a few days ago. Its basically a relatively deep trench in a shallow, secluded cove. By deep, I mean 13', surrounded by about 2' of flats. Well, the bass had disappeared, but I did find my next boat in the back creek arm. Its a fixer-upper, but looks pretty sweet. I'll have to wait until higher water in spring to take delivery. That'll buff out like new. I also found a few spare tires, I believe these were placed here by DEC as "habitat improvement." Not so sure about the rusted 55 gallon drum, though. That's probably toxic waste. At any rate, no Springfield bass in this cove. After all that paddling, I decided to head down to the creek, and catch some pike. I told Noel it was a "Sure Thing," to which he said to be careful. There's pics below of pike I wouldn't normally photograph, but as proof of concept. The creek has pike in it. My poor Slim Shad is taking a beating. Looks like this guy offended one of his larger brethren. Pike are very cannibalistic. I need to back up here. On my way down to the creek, I decided to troll a DD22 and a 3/4 oz. Krokadile on long lines. This has paid off in the past, and although its a slow pace, it certainly make the time spent "running and gunning" seem productive. I've also learned some interesting things about lure running depths. Not all is as it seems, but that's another post. Once I wandered into 16 FOW, the Norman started ticking bottom, the spoon just dredged bottom, so I reeled that in. As I approached, the water seemed "alive," I can't really describe it, but that's what it felt like to me. I started to tons of big fish on the graph. Really big fish. And just like that, the rod with DD22 starts thumping. I grab it, nothing. OK. So, I start casting. Had something on again, and came off immediately. At this point, it was becoming clear to me what was going on, but i decided to cast anyway. And then I was hooked up. With something big. What the hell is it? I knew what it was, and many of you probably know as well, but play along. I believe I hooked the elusive, giant, three eyed Springfield Bass. A look at its tail: The battle went on and on, for about 15 minutes. I did get the obligatory, blurry shot of the beast: I've made several calls to tabloid news organizations, and they think this story is worth about $15. I'm selling out.

Al had bowling this morning, so we got a late start. He had another good day at the lanes, and upped his average to 97. Not bad for a ten year old. He was bowler of the week two weeks ago, and I bet he gets it again. Gotta love the free BOTW free game coupons! I set him up with his little spinning rod and a F-7 Rapala in brown trout smolt color. He got whacked a couple of times, but couldn't convert. I gotta be honest, plugs aren't my thing. I like float, drift, and swinging spoons. But, after a friend showed me how similar they are to spoons, I'm willing to try. After about an hour, he lost my last plug on the opposite bank. No worries, we can get it back on the walk back down. I set him up with a bottom bouncing rig, since there was some good current. He was getting the hang of quartering, but not getting bit. Later he almost went for a swim, not believing or listening to me about current in deep holes. I was there to grab him, but his eyes were as big as pie plates as I hoisted him, stuck deep in fast water. Be careful out there when you take the kids out! Then, in a long, deep trench with a wicked bend, I missed twice when my float did a little dance. I knew there were fish, so I adjusted the shot pattern, set up the long, slow drift, and handed Al the rod. Actually Kase's 10.5 UL rod. A big rod for a little guy, LOL. After about 10 yards or so, the float goes down, and as I yell to set the hook, Al is already high sticking a fish that's running up in heavy current. Some coaching on how to steer the fish with side pressure, a couple of "dammit Al!'s", and a tired little guy was able to back up and walk the fish into the shallows where I could tail him. Dime bright steelhead hen, spitting eggs as I handed her to Al to hold. 26". Not bad. Sadly, when I whipped my camera out of the dry bag for some pics, I got the dreaded, "No CF Card" error. Crap!!! Oh well, we released the fish, that was barely hooked in the corner of the mouth. Awesome job, Al! Nice bowling and a nice fish.

Thanks Dave. No whoppers, but it was fun as hell.

Bought my Avid for $50, slightly used.

St. Croix Avid AVC62MXF Megabass/Daiwa Alphas Ito Ai, 23"/turn (5.8:1) P-Line CXX 8 lb. or 10#

Spent my Thanksgiving morning wandering the ditches near my house. I was the only one on the water, had about 5 miles of creek to myself. I spotted a couple of browns near the mouth, but they were too skittish. Spooked a couple more while wading under a bridge, far upstream. Seeing the browns, gave me confidence in bait of choice: salt cured brown eggs, 9 in each sack. On cold, cold days with clear skies, I find small egg sacks work well, and on warm overcast days, you want meatballs. Conditions were mixed, so I went middle of the road. Always odd numbers. I ended up with about a dozen domestic rainbows, and countless smolts, one going about 3", lol. The brown trout has eluded me thus far this fall. I've had three on, and lost them all. No takers today. I hope you like action shots!